This project was a collaboration between the University of Warwick and Yunnan Normal University. The aim of the project was to develop a series of professional development workshops for expert teachers that would help them to establish and facilitate professional learning communities (PLC) for teachers of English.
The project began with a needs analysis to help us understand expert teachers’ teaching practice, their previous experience of working with PLCs, the issues that expert teachers confront in facilitating professional development for teachers, and their needs for professional learning. We collected this data through a questionnaire and a focus group of teachers from the two schools.
Many of the expert teachers were relatively new to the role and so had little experience in facilitating professional learning or working with PLCs. However, there was a very wide range of experience in the group. The expert teachers viewed professional development as central to their roles but were less experienced in facilitating professional learning communities than in more teacher-centred forms of professional development through one-off events rather than sustained collaborative work. We found that expert teachers had difficulties engaging teachers in professional learning is a major problem because of lack of time for teachers to be involved in professional learning and limited support from their schools.
On the basis of the needs analysis, we developed a series of workshops for expertise teachers. These workshops were used to develop an online resource to support teachers’ professional learning and an accompanying booklet for expert teachers to use in developing their own expertise.
This programme is one of three key projects supporting pre- and in-service English teacher education in Yunnan province, supported by the British Council. The combined findings and outputs promise to have a significant impact on local teacher English teacher education and will contribute to the improved awareness and quality of teacher delivery while supporting more equitable and sustainable provision.
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Project introduction at 2023 China TeachingEnglish Online Conference
Please click above to see the project introduction at 2023 China TeachingEnglish Online Conference